Stories from the Field: Winter on Pine Ridge

under

date

12/13/18

location

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

At Tipi Waste (Running Strong's field office on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation) Tuesday morning, Running Strong field coordinator Dave Lone Elk was busy sorting the boxes of winter coats, and toys shipped last week from our warehouse in Virginia for distribution throughout the reservation.

Dave sorted the boxes on the pallets of winter coats to ensure that each district representative who would come to the warehouse to pick up the coats to take back for the residents of their respective districts would have a wide variety of sizes and colors to distribute.

In addition to the coats, the warehouse was full of toys that will be given out to hundreds of Pine Ridge children for Christmas, as well as at the Christmas party scheduled for December 18 at our affiliate, the Oyate Teca Project, at its community center through our Toys for Tribes program.

Also in the warehouse to be distributed this week are winter wear accessories including hats, gloves and scarves, snow boots, and diapers.

And then, today, Wednesday, December 12, it was a hectic, but rewarding, day at Tipi Waste.

The day began early in the morning first with a semi-tractor truckload of hundreds of frozen turkeys, followed by another semi-tractor truckload of frozen food boxes containing two chickens, chicken strips, vegetables and more.

Field coordinator Dave Lone Elk off loaded both trucks just in time as representatives from throughout the reservation who arrived with trailers in tow to haul back the frozen food, winter coats, snow boots, blankets, and plenty of toys ensuring hundreds of children will have a very Merry Christmas.

In the afternoon, Doug and his wife, Tanya - both staffers at the Oyate Teca Project - oversaw the distribution of the food boxes to residents in the community of Kyle and the surrounding Medicine Root District.